1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical image output system provided with a medical image transferring apparatus transferring received medical image data and a plurality of medical image forming apparatus each outputting a sheet-like recording medium having an image formable region in which the image formation of the medical image based on the transferred medical image data is performed, and the like.
2. Related Art
There has been conventionally known a medical image output system outputting a medical image formed (drawn) on a sheet-like recording medium such as a film, recording paper or the like. The medical image is one having been produced by radiography with various medical image generating apparatus (hereinafter referred to as “diagnostic apparatus”) of calculated tomography (CT), calculated radiography (CR), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a mammography apparatus, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and the like.
The medical image output system is composed of a diagnostic apparatus, a medical image transferring apparatus (hereinafter referred to a “conversion apparatus”) transferring the data of a medical image (hereinafter referred to as “medical image data”) generated by the diagnostic apparatus after converting the medical image data into data in accordance with Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) Standards, and medical image forming apparatus (hereinafter referred to as “output apparatus”) each creating a hard copy of the transferred medical image data.
FIG. 14 shows an example of a medical image which has been produced by the radiography of a diagnostic apparatus. As shown in the figure, a medical image FG100 therein includes patient information FG104 besides a radiography image FG102, which has been produced by radiographing a human body. A diagnostic apparatus produces a medical image by synthesizing patient information such as the ID number, the full name and the like of a patient, which have been input by a user, and a radiography image.
FIG. 15A shows an example of a film on which medical images have been formed by a film output apparatus, which is a kind of output apparatus. As shown in the figure, on the film FL100, the medical images FG100, which have been produced by the radiography with the diagnostic apparatus, and patient information FG100 included in the medical images are drawn to be formatted.
As a technique pertaining to the patient information, there has been known a method of performing image formation at a previously specified position and a previously specified size on a film to enable to easily sight the mixing of a film of another patient when a plurality of films are superposed on one another to be subjected to transmission (see JP-2004-226702A; hereinafter referred to as “Patent Document 1”).
Now, a region in which an output apparatus can form an image on a sheet-like recording medium (the region is hereinafter referred to as an “image formable region”) changes dependently on the version, the series and the like of the output apparatus. For example, in the film FL100 in which a certain output apparatus has performed image formation, the medical image FG100 and the patient information FG100 are drawn in an image formable region AR100 as shown in FIG. 15A. On the other hand, another output apparatus performs image formation in an image formable region AR200 on a film FL200 in FIG. 15B, or a further output apparatus performs image formation in an image formable region AR300 on a film FL300 in FIG. 15C.
In such a manner, the output apparatus expands or contracts a medical image according to severally different image formable region. Consequently, the size of a medical image which has formed on a recording medium may change dependently on an output apparatus. For example, when a doctor performs a diagnosis using recording media severally output from a plurality of output apparatus, a diagnostic mistake may be caused from the difference in each size of the medical image of each recording medium.
Moreover, similarly patient information is also expanded or contracted as well as a medical image according to the image formable region of each output apparatus. Consequently, the size of a character may change dependently on an output apparatus. Hence, even if recording media are superposed on one another as disclosed in Patent Document 1, a character of each recording medium is shifted from one another, and it is difficult to confirm the mixing of a film of another patient.